blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues

", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. I was stunned. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. They killed hundreds of thousands of people based on eye color alone, thats the reason I used eye color for my determining factor that day., Elliott divided the class into children with blue eyes and children with brown eyes. Exercise or Experiment-- An Account of Jane Elliott's Tenacity: A "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". And what she did caused an uproar. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. one girl asked. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. . Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. "Why?" Everyone's tired of her. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott's experiment was unethical because the participants weren't informed of its real purpose beforehand. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. . The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. Later, it would occur to Elliott that the blueys were much less nasty than the brown-eyed kids had been, perhaps because the blue-eyed kids had felt the sting of being ostracized and didn't want to inflict it on their former tormentors. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Delivery in 6+ hours! In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: On Race and Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today - Mental Floss Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . 10," Elliott said. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. Jane Elliot: Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - UKEssays.com The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training . "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. All rights reserved. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. "Brown eyes and Blue eyes" Study | sabbaila Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. It makes you proud. Could you?". Part of the problem is that the blue-eyed group is exclusively white, while the brown-eyed group is predominantly non-white, so that eye colour is no longer an analogue or metaphor for race but a . "Let me look at you," Elliott said. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. "We want to see Room No. Blue-eyed people. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes: Jane Elliott's controversial classroom experiment people are better than blue-eyed people. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. Throughout the investigation, the classroom represented a real-life scenario in which the unprivileged and minority members of the society are treated as out-groups making them susceptible to discrimination. A Review of Jane Elliott's Experiment In, a Class Divided "You know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. Subsequent research designed to gauge the efficacy of Elliotts attempt at reducing prejudice showed that many participants were shocked by the experiment, but it did nothing to address or explain the root causes of racism. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes offers an intimate portrait of the insular community where Elliott grew up and conducted the experiment on the town's children for more than a decade. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? Mental Floss, 4. The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. (2010). We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. And you'll always have it. She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . In fact, most of the initial response was negative. That's not true. January 1, 2003. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. The experiment was to be a division of eye colour starting with blue eyed student having superiority and then the following day, the roles would be reversed. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. Introduction. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. PDF A Guide to THE ANGRY EYE - 016e880.netsolhost.com All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. BLUE EYED - Faciliator Guide - Newsreel When Differences Matter | Facing History and Ourselves The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Elliott asked. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". The idea was simple but profound. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. Then tell them that . The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. You should be happy! Many of them noted that when they hear prejudice and discrimination from others, they wish they could whip out those collars and give them the experience they had as third graders. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. It is a must . At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. At first, she cooperated with me. She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring . Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. In a similar vein, Linda Seebach, a conservative columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote in 2004 that Elliott was a "disgrace" and described her exercise as "sadistic," adding, "You would think that any normal person would realize that she had done an evil thing. "She stirs people up. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. The fourth of five children, Elliott was born on her family's farm in Riceville in 1933, and was delivered by her Irish-American father himself. 296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and Website. The Daring Racism Experiment That People Still Talk About 20 - HuffPost ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? It was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 that Elliott ran her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in her Riceville, Iowa classroom. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. You can start from that point in Activity 2, or you can play the video from the beginning (00:00) so that your students can see civil rights era footage following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Elliott's students returning to Iowa . Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. As a result of those divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. She has led training sessions at General Electric, Exxon, AT&T, IBM and other corporations, and has lectured to the IRS, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education and the Postal Service. How can we teach kids to be more like him? PDF Discrimination: Experimental Evidence from Psychology and Economics Elliot said that when the children were given the test on the same day that they were in the superior group, they tended to get the highest scores. She told them brown-eyed . The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. In this article, we'll explain what happened during the experiment and discuss its consequences. Provide your email for sample delivery, You agree to receive our emails and consent to our Terms & Conditions, Order an essay on this subject and get a 100% original paper. When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). This procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. Yes, that day was tough. I felt mad. PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. It's the Jane Elliott machine. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . Carson asked, grinning. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. After the local newspaper published a story on Elliott and the experiment, she was flown to New York to appear on May 31, 1968, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she extolled the experiments effectiveness in cluing in her 8-year-old white students on what it was like to be Black in America. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. The brown-eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. You have the right color eyes!. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. Researchers later concluded that there was evidence that the students became less prejudiced after the study and that it was inconclusive as to whether or not the potential harm outweighed the benefits of the exercise. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. They gossiped about her in the hallway. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. I have brown eyes. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. It has everything to do with power.. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. It seemed to evince that all white people had to do to learn about racism was restrain themselves from an impulse to engage in made-up cruelty. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. But they returned to a better placeunlike a child of color, who gets abused every day, and never has the ability to find him or herself in a nurturing classroom environment." The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. Junior high, maybe. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. These differences lead to war and hate. Many educators responded by holding mandatory workshops on institutional racism and implicit bias, reforming teaching methods and lesson plans and searching for ways to amplify undersung voices. "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." These are the sources and citations used to research Jane Elliott's blue eye brown eye case study is/isn't more ethical than Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment. Social Emotional Learning Lessons for Jane Elliott - Advancement Courses Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. Typical of their responses was that of Debbie Hughes, who reported that "the people in Mrs. Elliott's room who had brown eyes got to discriminate against the people who had blue eyes.